According to Soviet government statistics, literacy in Turkmenistan was nearly universal in 1991. Experts considered the overall level of education to be comparable to the average for the Soviet republics. According to the 1989 census, 65.1 % of the population aged fifteen and older had completed secondary school, compared with 45.6 % in 1979. In the same time, the %age of citizens who had completed a higher education rose from 6.4 % to 8.3 %.

Turkmenistan has a literacy rate of 99.7 %, a holdover from the Soviet time when the government implemented a system of universal and tuition-free education. Under the Soviets, education was the primary mode of Communist indoctrination. Reforms implemented since the late 1980s, and particularly since freedom, have provided for changes in curricula and teaching materials. Education is compulsory in Turkmenistan until the age of 14. Most students also complete secondary school, which lasts until the age of 17. Turkmen State University, located in Ashgabat, is the nation’s largest university. Turkmenistan also has a number of specialized institutes that train students for careers in agriculture.